Michal Strzembicki
Our stay at Blue Bay Grand Esmeralda was absolutely fantastic and truly memorable.
We would especially like to thank Alex and Yulissa for their exceptional help and professionalism. They organized a beautiful private dinner for us with a private Mariachi concert, which was an incredible experience and showed a very high level of care and attention to guests.
The food throughout the hotel was delicious, with a wide variety of options. The themed restaurants are on a top world-class level, offering excellent quality and great atmosphere. The service across the entire hotel was friendly, professional, and always helpful.
The hotel offers a very rich evening entertainment and animation program, so there is always something enjoyable to do in the evenings. The rooms are very clean, comfortable, and well maintained.
Garden-view rooms are a real highlight — they offer beautiful views and the unique opportunity to observe wildlife directly on the hotel grounds. We saw coatis running along the pathways, as well as deer, raccoons, and many other beautiful animals, which made the stay feel very special.
Electric golf carts run constantly around the resort, making it easy and convenient to get to restaurants, the beach, and other areas of the hotel.
Beautiful hotel, excellent food, and warm, professional service.
Highly recommended!
Ken Jackson
Stayed at this hotel Jan 5-12 2026.
The grounds of the hotel are well kept, lush vegetation and many animals wandering about. Always staff clearing leaves and debris, you can tell they devout a lot of resources to maintain.
Room I had was so-so , cleaned everyday and minibar restocked daily. A bit moldy smelling, but it is in a very humid climate so can be expected. This hotel has been well used and needs major refreshing in the rooms/buildings.
The buildings are a bit shabby from the outside as the overhanging dry grass material on top floor was missing or falling down in many places. One working elevator in the building I was in, doors for it were all banged up and the flooring is worn and shabby looking- $50.00 worth of peel and stick tiles would take care of the floor issue. It's on it's last legs with the amount of noise generated going up and down.
Had zero issues with food and lot's of choices between reserved restaurants and buffets. The best thing I liked about this hotel was the coffee bar, very new equipment and decor. Staff were so good there and amazing coffee- I'd give it five stars. Overall staff throughout were friendly and accommodating.
Not a pool person so only went in a few times, many seemed to enjoy them. Watched staff cleaning quite a bit every morning.
The major disappointment I had with this hotel is the beach and lack of shade (at pools as well). There are wooden structures that didn't have any fabric to actually do what they were built for. There are around half a dozen palapas on the beach, that's it. The VIP ( Circle One) area has about a dozen, so I guess if you really want to have that Caribbean vibe when you sit ocean front, pay up. The beach itself has nice sand, but the view of the ocean is horrendous with all the unused old piers and large ugly tube like black stained cement " break walls" that are randomly in the water in front of you. There is also a break wall that is to the right of the resort. With these in place there is no way for natural movement of water in front of the resort. Debris gets stuck in front of the hotels beach because isn't moved along by currents. Brown water and silt was present for my entire week there, hardly ever anyone swimming in it. If you're looking for beautiful blue water and great ocean views the area is famous for, you won't find it here. If you're a pool person, the resort just might do ( if shade situation is taken care of)
Would never return to this hotel just because of the beach situation and the lack of shade. Suggest management look at looking after these irritants, buy some umbrellas, put up some more palapas and get rid of the structures in the water.
John Desousa
We are day 5/7 at the Grand Esmeralda. So far our experience has been great. Buffet has quite the variety with lots of freshly cooked food, al a carte restaurants do offer a more premium meal than the buffets, and drinks have been great. Service has been amazing, everyone greets you with a smile. Shoutout to Pedro helping with the entertainment by the pool. Rooms can be a bit of a walk from the pools/beach/restaurants but it’s a nice walk and you get your steps in. We would recommend this resort.
Bryson Worden
This is NOT a 5 Star All Inclusive/Hotel.
I'm starting with this up front because I want people to understand there ARE issues with Blue Bay. However, it is a 4 star at most. You can tell this when at the hotel but also with the price paid being the lowest of available options around.
The buffet food is decent, the beach is beautiful, and all the bartenders make the drinks very strong (Mucho gracias amigos). The staff in general also do their best to care for guests, but my partner and I did find a lot wasn't explained extremely well such as where food for inclusive guests is ("Festival" isn't on the website at all), amenities availability and times, and overall layout as well.
Our room was clean and serviced each day aside from when we indicated such (we slept in one day) and do come multiple times (at least two) to service the rooms. The room we had was a single king size with a coffee maker a TV with basic cable and internet access (through the wifi, this is not advertised as it is VERY slow but can run YouTube) and a safe for storing items in. Several light switches didn't operate anything and one of our faucets had absurdly high pressure. However: the water was warm and cold and all facilities worked as expected.
Entertainment is available and is impressive occasionally. We watched the Africa ("afro"), Mexican and Pop show. The Africa show and parts of the pop show were impressive, but we both found the Mexico show confusing and overstimulating at points as well. It also showed footage from places not in Mexico which was strange. But the performers for each show were outstanding and deserve applause. Other entertainment are some fitness and dance classes and a Spanish class, none of which my partner or I participated in.
When reviewing Grand Esmeralda my wife and I don't have much to compare it to, hence my feelings of it being at most a 4-star. It was fine for us as a couple who wanted beach, pool and sun, but if families are expecting more from their resort they may be left disappointed. However: we had a wonderful time and would recommend it to couples looking for Mexico vacation on a budget as well.
M F
We love it here! The dining room, housekeeping and lobby staff are always genuinely warm and cheerful.
Food is seriously YUMMY — and quite varied EACH DAY and MEAL. I loved their seafood dishes, every single one! You can easily go home chubby, no worries.
Drinks are delish! — except the beachside pool bar had a couple of sickly sweet drinks. But the north pool bar was awesome as well as the amazing coffee shop baristas and other drink/snack bars.
We had a promo room at the north end of resort — pool atmosphere is calmer and more chill here than at the beachside pool in the south where there are more people. Consistency is BlueBay Esmeralda’s forte — they treat you like royalty every day!
Only word of caution is when arriving at Cancun airport DO GO STRAIGHT TO YOUR RESORT SHUTTLE BUS otherwise you will be “caught” by the timeshare sellers who masquerade as “excursion tour operators” just as you exit the airport.
We had such an awesome time here and it is a great memory for us already…! Thanks BlueBay.
My Booking
